I forgot that i wanted to blog about this hashtag that i recently bumped into on twitter: #folkslikeus

Which…

Ugh.

i”m sure many people know about the #girlslikeus hashtag started by Janet Mock

Which, pretty much as soon as she had started it came under fire for being ‘exclusionary” — despite the fact that it is pretty broad in including all trans women. Some took issue with the use of ‘girl” vs. ‘woman” (despite the fact that this was inspired by trans youth). Some thought it was for twoc only (and thus ~bad~).

It didn”t take much time for transbros to get on it with #guyslikeus. And now (which has probably been happening for a while, but I havne”t been on twitter all that much) we have #folkslikeus.

in both cases, #guyslikeus and #folkslikeus, are simply another moment of the parasitism of larger trans ~community~ on the work and efforts of trans women of colour.

Look.

Trans women of colour have always been the leaders in both the trans and lgb movements. Pretty much all of it traces back to one of us.

And pretty much all of it has been generalized to be more ‘inclusive.” And the cost of this inclusion has been the erasure of twoc not only from the history of either/both communities, but from its very operations.

Both communities have organized around a principle of exploiting the work, lives, and oppression of twoc. Both do so in a way that most (if not all) of their stated goals and actions aim to improve their lot, without really caring about the most vulnerable. (or, at worse, specifically construction a notion of equality predicated on our backs)

So. awesome. #folkslikeus. #guyslikeus.</p>